Spoiler Theory about Jacky Magus

The reveal of the full events of the Second Summer of Love shows that while the Pyramid was trying to stop the Queen, Jacky noticed that someone sold their soul to Hell. He then proceeds to try to package up the population of Europe as a Signal, and tells Dev to go back and pretend to be Jacky, because he’s about the same size and color and can pull it off.

It’s never explicitly explained why Dev needs to be the one to go back, but we’re led to assume that Jacky needs to stay behind because he’s unwilling to leave the ship and will sacrifice himself to make sure the job is done —- either Dev can’t do it, or Jacky just doesn’t want to take the risk.

The sneakier implied chess move is that Jacky needs Dev to be the one to go back —- he immediately recognizes that Dev counters Eliza in a way that he doesn’t, and so by sending Dev back as Jacky he maintains the power balance. And we are seeing this play out now. As Jacky makes his move, he immediately flips Eliza and gets her to help out killing Etienne.

I believe that this is actually misdirection, and I don’t think that what we saw and what Dev described is the full story. The loose thread in the issue is the Signal —- it doesn’t need to be there. The Signal is described as the population of an entire alien planet looking for bodies that it can incorporate with. This would save the aliens, but wipe out the population of China. Jacky knows how it works, knows how to do it. He can overwrite personalities. He chooses not to do it for the Signal, but he does have the ability.

The reason I think this is important because the Signal’s not necessary to the plot. It doesn’t need to be there in the middle of the Summer of Love and a portal to hell being opened. It’s a card that doesn’t need to be played. But it makes sense if you have to have it for the next round.

I don’t think we’re looking at Dev at all. We’re looking at Jacky in Dev’s body, or Dev with Jacky running a Dev routine when needed. Jacky cloned his personality, and got to stay and leave at the same time.